Argosy All-Story Weekly — "The Purple Limited" — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

584 was broken. A welt showed acrogs his chin. His greasy jacket was torn from his shoulders, exposing a gray shirt. “What happened?” asked J. J. D. into the fireman’s cinder-clogged ear. ‘“ Who hit you?” Lark returned to the superintendent’s side in time to hear the fireman’s answer. “Who h-it me? Why—three of them. They came over—th’ tender when we were pullin’ out of th’ yard—after takin’ water at th’ tank. ‘ Bail up,’ they said. They had big guns, an’ their faces were covered with red masks. One of them—”’ . The fireman wiped his face with the back of his left hand. ‘One of them sapped old Dad with a ‘ Johnston-bar ’ an’—laid him cold. I put up a fight—but it was no use, super. Off we go when th’ fellow at th’ throttle slowed to about five miles an hour.” “Can you walk?” asked J. J. D. _ “T don’t know. I got up once an’ saw th’ Purple Limited hittin’ it around that curve there. She whistled for Green Creek. Then I fell over, an’ must have gone to sleep.”’ ‘What did the men look like?” ‘¢ Two were tall an’ one was short, super.”’ Lark caught a side-flash from Darrah’s S eye. He circled in the snow and attempted to prove the truth of the fireman’s story. He found, beside the place where the fire- man had lain, a lump of hard coal and a heavy iron bar. It was evident that the train-robbers had thrown these missiles from the engine. Darrah’s signal put Lark on his mettle. The superintendent had intimated in that quick flash that everybody’s statements concerning the train-robbers were going to be checked up. It was the first time Lark had been in J. J. D.’s confidence. He decided to make good. Stopping to examine the road-bed on both sides of the track, he walked some distance ahead of the standing engine. The electric head-lamp made the night as bright as day. There was nothing suspicious on the snow. ‘The robbers had boarded the blind at the water-tank, waited a few min- utes, crawled across the tender, stuck up ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. the engineer and fireman—threwn them off, and went about their business. They had selected one of the worst nights of the year. There was no messenger in the sealed express car. Lark heard the engine whistle for his re- call. He ran down the track and climbed aboard. Darrah stood talking to the fireman of the Purple Limited. The engineer of that train lay in the coal where two of the wreck- ing crew were bandaging the wound on his head. ~ The train gained speed. J. J. D shouted above the roar: of the clanking drivers: ‘“‘ Never mind stopping at Green Creek! Go right to the bridge. Watch both sides of the track. You know me! Wates both sides! ” The wrecking train gained speed—whis- tled for Green Creek station, and dashed through the yard. ‘“No use stopping here,” Darrah re- peated to Lark. ‘“‘ The operator reported the Purple Limited all right.” Lark leaned and watched the road-bed. The two side-lights, aided by the head- lamp on the engine, brought out all details of tracks and ties. Shadows moved. Tele- graph-poles flashed by. The train rocked and clattered over switch points and cul- verts. Again the whistle sounded. “Slow down on the draw. snapped J. J. D. bridge-tender.” The engineer stopped the wrecking train in the center of Broad River. work of the huge draw was coated with snow. A faint light glowed high in the bridge-tender’s tower. A door opened. An old man, leaning. on a cane, looked out. Darrah cupped his hand and shouted: “When did the ) Une Limited—43, go by?” ce H ey?” “When did 43 go by?” The bridge-tender turned and disap- peared. He came into vision again. He answered in a high, cracked voice: “ Th’ Purple Limited—one car an’ an engine, went hell-roarin’ by, fifty-two min- utes late. That you, super?” CO Stop!” ‘JT want to talk to the MICLOO The lattice — S CO